Continuing the blog serialisation of my popular X-Pro Series lust/hate/love story:
Part 37: The X-Pro2 Review: How to Use the Fujifilm RFC RAW Convertor: Part One
A bit of a departure from talking about the X-Pro series for this instalment!
I thought it was time to have a closer look at the RFC (RAW File Convertor) software that’s supplied by Fujifilm with their cameras (and also available for download from their website)
This software is pretty much universally hated!!
Clunky, slow and illogical – it’s easy to see why no seems too like it.
So am I about to educate you that it’s not clunky, slow and illogical?
No, that’s not possible!
But that said, not using any other process/RAM heavy application while you’re using RFC can make a difference in its operating speed.
However RFC is not without usefulness and in my opinion; anyone not needing or wishing to buy, a full-on RAW convertor or anyone who just needs a separate app to generate .TIFF files for use in a more fully featured product, could do worse than use this completely free of charge, (supplied by the people who make your camera) piece of software
RFC is supplied by Fujifilm, but is made by Ichikawa Soft Laboratory Co.Ltd, a Japanese company. The version supplied with Fujifilm cameras is a stripped down version of their more fully featured SikyPix Developer Pro software.
So in the coming parts we’re going to be taking a look at it’s features, what it can do (and what it can’t) and how to use it.
Before we start editing any images, let’s take a look at the features and options and how we might want to set them up.
This is the full screen of the application, which should be the view that greets you when you launch the app
To begin with, you should head to the Options Menu in order to make some changes
Setting For Developed Image
Here I personally recommend having RFC add a suffix to your developed images. Applying a setting here will add the suffix to all images that RFC develops. I’ve chosen ‘RFC’ so that I know my images were made in this application. In this example, the setting will have the effect of naming your files _______.RFC.jpg. This can be handy if you have SOOC Jpegs and RAFs in the same folder, it will stop RFC wanting to overwrite your SOOC Jpegs, with its developed Jpegs. (For example, if set to shoot RAW + Jpeg, your Fuji will give you 2 Files; DSCF1234.RAF & DSCF1234.jpg. On standard settings, RFC will want to output the file its created from DSCF1234.RAF as ‘DSCF1234.jpg’ but that file already exists)
I would also set the output quality to the highest setting
The next item from the options menu is Display Settings
Here you can specify any colour profile management that your monitor may have and what side of the screen the tools to reside.
For Preview Display System, the default setting is a ‘coarse’ preview (full image view, which is very slow to update) and a more accurate ‘zoom to 100%’ view for when you need to check a specific part of the image
If you have a colour profile for your screen, set it from the Display Settings Monitor Profile drop down menu
The next item is Function Settings dialogue box
Function Settings
The next item from the Options Menu, is the Function Settings. Here you can specify at what point the auto exposure tool meters for; as well as the level at which the shadow and highlight “blinky” warnings kick in at.
Two important changes I recommend here
1)Enable continuous operation of the Eyedropper tool
2)Cache settings – MAXIMUM
The first setting means that when using (say) the WB selector tool, if you want to click more than once and try a second (or 3rd, 4th etc) WB from a point in the image, then you don’t have to re-select the tool each time. (But you will have to manually deselect the tool after you’re finished with it)
The second settings gives RFC it’s max performance on your system… It’s still slow though 🙂
If you want RFC to ONLY work with RAW images, tick the box at the bottom left “Operate RAW Data Files Only”
The next item is Key Customisation
If you love keyboard shorts – here’s the menu to make them/change them and a list of the shortcuts native within the app
The next item is Default Parameter Settings
This menu determines the “pre-set” that RFC applies on image opening.
Selecting a new Default Parameter Setting
Later I’ll show you how to make pre-sets, but once you have a pre-set you want as a starting point for all of your RAFs, you can select it from the drop down and it’ll be applied on initial image opening
The Options Menu has a additional options sub-set
The Delete Access History clears the cache of where you’ve opened files from on your computer
If you’ve changed the position of any of the tools, the Initialize Location of Controls resets them to default
Change the ‘Skin’ Colour of the application
The Help Menu:
Initialize User Configuration File = deletes all your custom settings
Delete Temporary Files, clears the cache on your computer from the files left by image editing
The Trouble Shooting Menu.
The items here are explained accurately.
Next time we’ll take a look at the native tools within the RFC application.
It’s not as under featured as some would have you believe…
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Adam Bonn Fotografia 
Very well put together for a product that has a lot more power and capability than it is given credit for. But the overall interface is very foreign when we look at all the other processing software that is out there which all follow some form of continuity when it comes to names of processes one wants to perform, location where those processes are found, and in general the way the tools are at the fingertips of a user.
I cannot say how many times I have given Silkypix a try even to the point of buying there full blown premier version and out of frustration with the way it works I had to sideline it each time.
Today there are just to many other applications such as On1 Raw, Luminar, Pictorial and they are all inexpensive compared to what we used to pay for a good raw processor. I am talking anywhere from 25.00 to 100.00. We used to pay a lot more. $250.00 to 600.00 just to process a raw file. All of these new softwares are optimized for the Fuji X trans cameras both 16mp and 24mp. And even better they provide filters, layers, brushes, etc. for working on the Raw file. They are non destructive in everything that they do and they follow the basic layouts and controls of most other products that are on the market. I can pick up anyone of them and go to work for basic editing. I just cannot do that with Silkypix.
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Thanks Elliot,
It’s certainly true that SilkyPix gives things some odd names!
Although I often use the full version of SilkyPix (which does have quite a few more features) it’s not something that I’d recommend!! Well except to advise someone to give it a try.
I wrote this series, because every Fuji shooter (and some of the other far east brands) has access to this software, not everyone shoots raw with enough regularity to justify paying for their software, and I see RFC as an official Fuji accessory.
As you know, these blog posts are about 20 weeks behind when these articles first appear as web pages, so Iridient transformer was not out when I wrote this, and so many users were really looking for a way to demosaic RAFs (into say TIFFs) for use in LR, and I felt some people could be served in this task with RFC. Which was another reason to write a guide
I gave On1 Raw a try as I’m a fan of On1 Photo (great finishing software, along with Nik), but there’s still some work to be done IMO, particularly around lens corrections.
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Iridient for Fuji files is excellent. On1 since their last upgrade seems to be pretty stable on my Macs but I cannot speak for Windows.
I agree free is nice but sometimes just a small investment like 50.00 or 60.00 piece of software is not outrageous considering that Fuji users for the most part are walking around with gear that costs somewhere between 1200.00 and 5000.00. I just sayin’.
I have been working with a lot of pieces of software in the last few months and Capture one 10, Luminar Pluto, Picktorial, On1 Photo Raw, Iridient and Iridient Transformer. These are all great offerings, in all different price ranges but not free.
I suppose if one would just use Silkypix only and master it they would be quite happy with the results. But if any Fuji shooter has used other software, and maybe more than one software then getting used to the Silkypix is a challenge.
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On1 (and PhotoNinja) need to make it so that automatic lens corrections are supported, that’s a basic requirement in my book!
RFC is Fuji’s supplied software, so I’ve written about as part of the ‘Fuji-sphere’
It seems that a great many Fuji shooters a) use LR and b) moan about LR
RFC if nothing else is a pretty decent demosaicing app, that Fuji give away FOC.
Pre Iridient Transformer, this was a decent way for LR users to have an app that they could use to batch demosaic RAFs and then import them into LR
Now that Iridient Transformer has set the bench mark by which all other demosaicing apps are judged, I’d personally recommend that the disgruntled LR users buy that as it’s not expensive
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I think it is pathetic that a company that wants to play in the global market and charge almost US$200 for a raw converter, is too arrogant to hire native English speakers to re-write their text and their website. I don’t attempt to write Japanese and expect Japanese speakers to buy my product!
Silky Pix is over priced, difficult to use, and brings nothing of value to the table, when we have a plethora of other products that are as good, cheaper and written and supported by native (or as good as) English speakers.
Just my opinion. Your mileage may vary…
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Hi Paul,
Well there’s certainly some truth to that (and some of Fuji’s translations doesn’t exactly flow off the page!)
However, RFC (which is what this article is about) is 100% FOC download from the Fuji website, so it’s not $200
I originally wrote this long before XID hit the market, when they were a few people looking for basically a demosaicing product, to make TIFFs for use with LR/PS
Before XID, people’s choices were the full Iridient app or PhotoNinja, both a little too good just to be used for batch processing and neither free (Plus with PN you need a good eye for manual lens corrections)
Also, RFC is part of the ‘Fuji-Sphere’ so I wanted to write about it as part of my Fuji series.
And on a personal note, so many people said that RFC was unusable, I just had to challenge myself to try and figure it out! A challenge that I really haven’t completed!
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In years I started loving RFC and now is my preferred tool (in my opinion has a great demosaicing engine). I agree it lacks of many features but for my needs is more than enough, moreover it lets me to play w/ ALL the Fujifilm emulations 😉
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There’s the paid for version that adds a lot of the missing features of the free one. The demosaicing engine is indeed very good, and I like some of the native film simulations too
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